I will be back after next week at CTP with lots of new ideas....

Until then check out

Melanie at http://www.schoolgirlstyle.com/.

The Rock Star theme goes with our new

Black and White decor so well.



Look What's New!

It's that time again....

CTP announces the new products for 2012!

What is black and white and FUN all over????

The Designer Decor Collection

for this year from CTP is in

Black and White!

Enhanced by touches of color,

this classic color palette is

always in fashion and

adds FUN to your classroom.

The  collection includes both  
BW 6" and 10" Designer Cut-Outs.

They are perfect for cards and frames
for highlighting student work,
 making covers for class books,
and for accents here and there.

Personalize and jazz up newsletters,
announcements, awards, and more with
BW Polka Dot Party Computer Paper.

Colorful BW Name Tags
come in two styles and are perfect
for new students, field trips,
or to label cubbies and books.

Personalize student desks, cubbies or folders with these fun
 BW Name Plates. 
They come in two different styles....
stripes and dots.



There are 8 new BW Borders.



Some with dots,
some with swirls,
some with flowers,
some with hints of colors,

Some have stars,
some are pennants,
some have stripes.



All are really cute and FUN!


There are also
BW Library Pockets
and  
 BW Happy Birthday Bulletin Board. 

I can't wait to start making things from the
 Black and White Designer Collection!

Watch for CTP's new 2012 catalog
coming soon to a mailbox near you!

I will be at the office in California next week. 
 I get to see and touch it all.
I will give you a report when I get back



Soldier Boxes

Happy New Year

2012

I got this email this morning and it was such a

good idea that I had to pass it along.

My friend Susan has a passion for taking care

 of the troops wherever they happen to be.

I thought some of you might have some things to share.

I went through my CTP stuff and collected

everything that had a heart on it.

You probably have some things, too.

You can send anything to me or contact your local USO.

Perhaps you like Susan have a passion for the troops.

  

So, in taking down my Christmas stuff, an idea struck me – if you are getting rid of any of your ornaments or small decorations that you are tired of, could you pass them along to me? I will store them in my attic until this coming November to send to our troops. If, by some miracle, they come home before then, I will donate the items to charity. I usually try to get out to the stores and buy stuff for 75% off, but I don’t know that there’ll be much left this week. Plus it’s hard to buy a gob of stuff when your husband is tagging along with you – you know what I mean, ladies! :-) He was home all last week and really cramped my style! Anyway, if you have anything, you can bring it to church & put it in the soldier box.


Along those lines, if you have any Valentine’s cards or small decorations that you won’t be using this year, I am gearing up to send that out this month so they’ll have the cards in time to send to their loved ones here at home. I will also take any cards on which you’d like to write a message to them. :-) Unfortunately, they get a TON of stuff at Christmas and then all of a sudden, mail slacks WAY off. A card goes a long way to brighten their day! Also, if you’d like to give your grandchildren something to do while they’re out of school, they can draw a Valentine picture or two. Children’s pictures make everyone smile!  (Teachers this would make a great class project.)

2012 Blessings!

Susan

If you cannot find a way to donate locally contact me

through my email. tommie.netzer@creativeteahing.com . 

 I will send you my address.

You can send stuff to me and I will take it to the soldier box. 

 The prepaid boxes from the post office make shipping easy. 

Susan sends out dozens of the boxes every week. 

The $10 size holds a lot of stuff. 

She is in direct contact with a few of the chaplains

 who know what the troops need. 

 Last year at this time they needed sweats and socks to use in the hospital. 

You can never tell what she will ask for.

She always fills the boxes with fun stuff too. 

They love the comics section of the newspapers and old PEOPLE magazines. 

One of their favorites is a birthday party box. 

 I think they just pass the stuff around to whoever has a birthday.

More later...but I wanted to share this today.

What a great way to kick off a new year!

Maybe soon she will not need to send any more boxes!! 



Schoolgirl Style Gingerbread

http://www.schoolgirlstyle.com/2011/12/christmas-and-winter-classrom-decorating/

Melanie always amazes me! 

It may be too late for all the decorations but there is still time for a gingerbread party. 
Check out her website and see all her fantastic stuff and a couple of really cute kids.

Gingerbread, candy canes, and hot chocolate....that could go on for all winter.

Plus, Jan Brett, my favorite!

Kate, my first grader, came home the other day and said...."I love Jan Brett!"

I said. ""Me too!"

Jan Brett says there is more to tell in a story than you can say with just words. 

That is why she puts picture borders around the pages in her books. 

You can spend as much time looking at the pictures

as you do reading the book.

There are several Christmas books by Jan Brett. 

 Find one and read it.  Don't forget the pictures! 

My favorite is Wild Christmas Reindeer.  What is yours?

CTP 5889
http://www.creativeteaching.com/

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends....

This activity is from my favorite book

Making Memories.

Check our the e-book at

http://www.creativeteaching.com/

May we all be blessed by the lights of the season.

RACK'ed

If you celebrate Hanukkah, I wish you.....Happy Hanukkah!
If you celebrate Kwanzaa, I wish you....Happy Kwanzaa!
I recently had a wonderful conversation with my beautiful doctor who was fasting for Ramadan.

I celebrate Christmas, so I wish you Merry Christmas!

Here is a great story that I "borrowed" from my friend Amy and Pinterest.
Amy is a great mother of two little boys, Preston and Bergen.  Find out more about her on her blog.  http://alsoknownased.blogspot.com/



You've Been RACK'ed!

Have you heard of Pinterest.com? It's a virtual bulletin board where you can not only organize your recipes, craft/decorating/style ideas - but you can spend hours (upon hours...upon hours) looking at other's pins as well. Friends, strangers, come one - come all.


My favorite right now is a list of Random Acts of Christmas Kindness (RACKs). This lady posted about doing random acts of Christmas during the season of advent to help us remember, it's about giving, not receiving. And you know, random acts tend to roll forward, and hopefully form a snowball of kindness during this wonderful, stressful season.



(These are some of the pictures from Pinterest.  I am addicted to it too.)

My kids have been weird lately. Have yours? I'm not sure if it's

Christmas-itis, or if my 10 year old is starting the moody preteens early.

But it's been weird around here. Honestly, this is where these

random acts of kindness really come in handy.

 When we are feeling snarky, doing something nice always helps turn it around.

Friday was no exception. We were all a little tense Friday night waiting for dad to get home from work. We loaded up in the car to take the dry cleaning and find a RACK to recover us from our attitudes. I've been saving this RACK for a nice day - it rained for like a whole week here, and this needed a nice, dry day.


We drove up to the main grocery store close to our home and attached candy canes to car doors with a little note. We got the note from the original RACKer, found on Pinterest. If you are so inclined, please use for your own family's RACKing or you can make up your own version. 




I tied the note to candy canes and we ran through the parking lot attaching them to doors of cars. It was really very fun. Preston was so worried we were going to get into trouble for touching other people's cars. Such a rule follower, just like his momma. We ran back to the car and waited to see a shopper find their candy canes. But since it was dark, we could not really see. We imagine that they were all *very* happy and felt *very* blessed and decided to pass it on. And that's what we'll continue to imagine.


This was a very fun RACK!

We left the store to head to dinner. The restaurant had video games and a crane lift game to win balls. What a waste of money...um, I mean fun time. $.20 balls now cost $5.00! Anyway, Preston comes running over to tell me he did a RACK! He won a ball, and gave it to the 2 year old watching him. Oh, this momma's heart swelled up with pride - so proud of Preston and what he's learning from helping others. A Merry Christmas, indeed. I hope y'all had a great weekend and enjoy your week!

Regardless of how you celebrate the season, KINDNESS is always in season.

Go forth and RACK!!!

Deck the Halls

Remember my creed....

Anything worth doing is worth over-doing!

and

Everything looks better with a bow!

It has been a while since I posted on my blog

but I have been busy re-enforcing my creed.

I want to show you all of my over-doing and my bows.

Bows at the front door to welcome you in.

l

Bows by the reindeer having fun in the back.

Bows on the baskets and bells too.

Bows on wreaths both fat and thin.

Bows both large and small

to deck all the halls. 

 

No bow! Oh dear, I missed one!

or two!
What should I do?

Bows in the kitchen...

on baskets for plates for serving good food.

One, two, or three bows
how many do you need?

With bows and with food
Less is not More
More is More!

  

Bows on the fire wood but not in the fire.

Bows by the candles, but not very close.
A fire in the fireplace is really quite enough!

Bows on all tables and to deck all the walls.

Bows in baskets with Santa Claus.

Bows beside a Santa from 30 years ago.

Bows work in bathrooms just wait and see....

 beside the sink or...

or on a toilet...

What do you think!

Bows on the Christmas tree from the top....

to the presents below.



BOWS, BOWS EVERYWHERE!

 

In this picture it seems the bow is on me!

Be careful when you deck the halls!

Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong,
Christmas Bells are Ringing!